Jeff Boyd: Why Hard Things Are the Opportunity

Hey friends, Chase here

Jeff Boyd is on the show today, and this conversation is about building the kind of life and business that does not always look like the predominant story on the internet.

Jeff is the founder and chairman of MTE, More Than Energy, which he describes in this episode as "an energy that loves you back." Before that, he spent 15 years as the President and co-owner of Luggage Free, where he expanded global operations to more than 100 countries before selling the company in 2019.

What I loved about this conversation is that it is not the usual story about chasing the next app, raising venture capital, or building something because the internet told you that is what entrepreneurship is supposed to look like.

This is a conversation about physical products, unsexy businesses, competition, fatherhood, leadership, and what it means to keep choosing hard things on purpose.

Jeff says it plainly right at the top:

"That's why I tell my team all the time. They just look at me and I'm like, if it were easy, everybody be doing it. We got to do what nobody else is willing to do, and then you're going to be happy we did it. And I tell them that I'm like, oh yeah, this is hard. And I'm excited about it. Because now that's an opportunity for us because we'll outwork anybody."

That idea is at the center of this episode. We talk about the grind of building something real, why curiosity matters more than credentials, what sports teach us about business, why leadership is not about personality type, and how the best things in life often come down to loving the process instead of obsessing over the outcome.

Why This Conversation Matters Right Now

Most of the entrepreneurs and creators we see online are building in public, building digitally, or building something that looks like the current version of what the internet rewards. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is not the only path.

In this episode, I say:

"A lot of folks I know in the audience feel a pressure to make their businesses walk and talk and look like the creators and the entrepreneurs that see out there in the world, which is one of the reasons I want to start celebrating some people who are building really successful lives, careers."

That is why I wanted to have Jeff on the show. He built and sold a shipping business. Now he is building a physical product in the health and wellness space. He is not chasing the obvious thing. He is not trying to make his work look like everyone else's.

Jeff's path is a reminder that there is a whole world of entrepreneurship outside the digital-first story. There are products, services, local businesses, physical goods, retail shelves, manufacturing problems, customer conversations, teams, families, and real-life constraints.

And sometimes, that is where the opportunity is.

What We Explore in This Episode

• Jeff's early business story and how he became employee one at a shipping company before helping grow it around the world.
• The "answer is yes" mindset that helped Luggage Free expand into all 50 states and more than 100 countries.
• Why physical products are different and what changes when you are building with atoms instead of bits.
• The origin of MTE and why Jeff wanted to build "an energy that loves you back."
• What it means to enjoy the grind when the work is hard, relentless, and full of problems you do not know how to solve yet.
• Fatherhood, presence, and time and why Jeff says he is "so all in now" with his family.
• Competition, sport, and business and why Jeff still trains and competes as a long jumper.
• Leadership and authenticity and why Jeff says people do what you do, not what you say you do.
• Second and third career arcs and what Jeff has learned about zooming out, building teams, and letting people play the right roles.

The Core Idea: If It Were Easy, Everybody Would Be Doing It

One of the strongest threads in this conversation is Jeff's relationship with hard things. He is not pretending the grind is glamorous. He says straight up that building physical products, selling through retail, and getting people to care is hard.

But he also sees that difficulty as part of the opportunity.

"You know I some of this stuff I think the harder it is, the better for me. For sure. You want, you want to bear. People are going to be like, oh, I don't have the guts to do this. That's right. Yeah. And then the ones that do, that's a that's another level, right? That's another fence they cleared. But then it's like, okay, well now you did that. But are you ready to grind now because it's a grind."

That is the mindset that shows up again and again in the episode. The point is not that everything should be hard for the sake of being hard. The point is that difficulty can reveal where other people quit.

That is true in sport. It is true in business. It is true in building a family, a product, a brand, a company, or a body of work.

The Answer Is Yes

Jeff's first major business story starts with Luggage Free. At the beginning, the company was taking orders by hand and trying to get the phone to ring. Then the first real call came in.

"Anyway, so we're trying to get the phone to ring so we can handwrite our orders. And the first call, the guy, you know, we're all. It was kind of like a movie. We're all like, you know, hushed around him, waiting, you know, hearing him, he's like, oh, I'm sorry, we don't serve. North Carolina hangs up. And we were like, oh, dude, Gary, of course you serve anybody."

That moment became a kind of operating philosophy:

"And I was like, from now on, the answer is yes. Like whatever anybody says answered yes. And with that really that charge? Yeah. We were quickly in all 50 states and we grew to 109 countries throughout the world. And it was always in response to a call."

There is something powerful in that. Not because saying yes is always the right answer, but because early in a business, the market often tells you where to go before your strategy deck does.

Someone calls. Someone asks. Someone has a need. Someone gives you a clue.

The question is whether you are willing to follow it.

Building Something You Can Hold

After selling Luggage Free in 2019, Jeff had time and space. He was not rushing into the next thing. He was riding his bike, playing tennis, spending time with his family, and looking for what might call him next.

What called him was not another service business. It was a physical product.

"And so in 19 sold it 2019, 2019 were operating all over the world, offices all over and sold it and was kind of free to at that point, I was like, all right, I want to like what I loved about it was the challenge and the fun and the competition. Right. You're building, you're competing."

He continues:

"But I what I yearn for was a product and something that was tangible I could actually hold right and do a different scent or a different flavor or different size or different color, whatever."

That desire eventually became MTE. Jeff had been trying to solve his own energy problem, stacking supplements, chasing better mood, better energy, and better performance, until he realized the pieces were not working together.

"And I realized I was like, Frankenstein. I mean, like, we were talking about it last night, like piling all these supplements together to try and make yourself feel better, even even like ten supplements, which doesn't sound that bad. Shit. Crazy. Yeah. We'll be like a suitcase full when you're traveling, you know?"

MTE came from that search.

"So we built it's an energy that loves you back. Right. Like an energy drink that loves you back. Yeah. Right. So you get prebiotics and caffeine free blend. That's better than caffeine. Yeah. So now you're getting energy that feels great that you can trust. Sure. And no jitters, no crash, no impact on sleep."

Curiosity, Thrill, and Figuring It Out

One of my favorite parts of this conversation is when Jeff talks about starting something in a category where he did not have obvious experience. He had not built beverage brands before. He was not a chemist. He was stepping into a new world.

His answer was not fear. It was curiosity.

"Yeah. Like, I like hair on fire. Like, let's go figure this out."

Then he gets to the larger point:

"I like it's curiosity and thrill. And that's what it boils down to. Right. Like, I think you you like that's what entrepreneurship is. It's solving problems and and finding solutions to things. Even if you've done it 20 times, they're going to be solutions that need to be had in the evolving world and landscape in which we operate."

That is entrepreneurship in a sentence. You do not get to know everything before you begin. You do not get a guarantee that the answer is obvious. You get a problem, a question, a changing landscape, and the chance to learn fast enough to keep moving.

Jeff says:

"But that's why I love it. I think if, if we boil it down, I love the curiosity that that is necessary to just because you're like, I don't know the answer to that. Instead of that overwhelming me or said of panicking, I'm going to go learn because I'm sure there's more than one answer. We'll figure out. Maybe we'll triangulate, figure it out. Yeah, get to a solution. And and then we'll know for next time. And then we'll be able to iterate and make it better. And on it go. Like I love that process."

You Have to Love the Process

The conversation moves from business into fatherhood, sport, and the shape of a life. Again and again, we come back to process.

Jeff says it directly:

"Yeah. You have to love the process, right? And I think that's true of anything, particularly in stuff like that where it's easy to focus on the outcome. I'm lose 20 pounds, I'm going to whatever it is, I'm going to get this promotion, you know. And then I think what happens is then the outcome just naturally happens because you love the process."

This applies to entrepreneurship, training, parenting, leadership, and creative work. If you are only trying to reach the finish line, you miss the life that happens while you are getting there.

Jeff connects that idea to family:

"Like the time is fleeting, right? For whatever it is. And you really have to enjoy the journey because, you know, like, I look at things like, if it's a line that's made up of just millions and millions of dots, and those dots would represent any given period in time."

He continues:

"Right. College graduation, high school graduation. They get married like whenever it is. You've decided that they've you've set them free. The that point will just be one of hundreds of millions of points that made up the line. Yeah. So, you know, looking and it's kind of the same with like a business, right. Like if you're just all you want to do is sell the business, you're just focused on that. You're going to miss all these hundreds of millions of, of experiences or anything else, right?"

Competition Brings Out the Best in People

Jeff is still a competitive long jumper. He talks about master's track, world records, regional meets, and the way competition gives him purpose.

That competitive lens shows up in business too.

"I love it, I love it, I think I think I love to compete. Like I was just telling my buddy the other day, like, I don't like when he's fine, but I hate losing, which is weird, right?"

Then he goes deeper:

"So I just love the competition, and I love the process that goes into it. And having, you know, so being able to have a purpose and go in and compete and I love competing. Sure. I just think it brings out the best in people."

For Jeff, sport is one vehicle for competition, but not the only one. Business is another.

"Sports is just a vehicle to compete. Right. So is it the competition like because it brings the best out in you or why do you like it. Yeah, I think I think just that it's the vehicle for sports. Sure. So I like it as an umbrella. I love it in the business."

He talks about the shipping company in that same frame:

"Like even the shipping company I had towards the end, I was I didn't have a lot of passion for it, but I had, you know, a very competitive space and there were upstarts in the industry and you're like, all right, well, these guys are trying to take my lunch money, you know, like, right. Not on my watch."

Leadership Means Leading From the Front

When I ask Jeff what is required of leadership, his answer is simple:

"Got to lead from the front, I think. Right. I mean, yeah, it's people do what you do, not what you say you do."

He adds:

"I think you need to be genuine too. Yeah. Right. Like, if you're, if you're genuine and authentic, I think people are more prone to get in line and buy in and say, I'm, I'm, I'm subscribing to what? You're where you're leading me again."

That is an important distinction. Leadership is not just having followers. It is not having the loudest voice in the room. It is not projecting certainty at all times.

It is what people see you do.

It is the consistency between your words and your behavior. It is whether the people around you believe that the thing you are asking from them is something you are willing to model yourself.

Nobody Does It Alone

Later in the conversation, Jeff talks about what he has learned in this newer chapter of his life and career. One lesson is the importance of zooming out. Another is the myth of the lone genius.

"And then the other thing I've learned is you like, nobody does it alone. Right? I mean, that's like total myth. Yeah. The myth of the lone wolf. The lone genius. Yeah. It's, you know, you need a you need a whole group of people that are going to bring ideas that you would have never thought of. They're going to execute your ideas that you do have."

He continues:

"Right? They're going to they're just they're going to champion for you in ways that you never even knew needed to be championed. You know, I mean, all the things you need a you need a great team and you need to find."

That is a hard-earned lesson for builders. The bigger the thing you are trying to create, the less likely it is that you can muscle your way through alone.

You need ideas you would not have had. You need people who can execute. You need people who can challenge you, support you, and help you see what you are missing.

Role Players Matter

One of the most useful leadership ideas in this episode is Jeff's realization that not everyone on a team has to be an all-star.

"And the other thing I talk about all the time is it's you have to resist the urge to demand that everybody in your team is an all star, right? Like even the greatest sports teams have role players, and they have guys that sit on the bench to get the starters ready for the playoffs."

He explains what he learned:

"But they don't, you know, they're they're effectively benchwarmers. But they have a role in the team. And you have a trainer and you have a coach and assistant coaches and all. You know, it's it's the whole organization."

That perspective changed the way he thought about people and teams:

"That was difficult for me earlier on. I, I just felt like everybody had to be an all star. If you're not at all star, you're you're like, I'm failing you or you're failing me. And either way, you got to go. You know, we're going to get somebody else in here."

The lesson is not to lower standards. It is to understand roles. Great teams are not built by pretending everyone is supposed to contribute in the same way.

About Jeff Boyd

Jeff Boyd is the founder and chairman of MTE (More Than Energy), colloquially known as 'energy that loves you back'. MTE has prebiotics and a caffeine-free blend that functions better than caffeine, giving users feel good energy they can trust, with no spike, no crash, and no impact on sleep.

Prior to founding MTE, Jeff spent 15 years as the President and co-owner of Luggage Free where he expanded global operations to over 100 countries before selling the company in 2019.

In his free time, Jeff is a notorious oenophile, cyclist and long jumper. If he's not on the bike, on the track, or in the cellar, he enjoys traveling the world with his wife and two children.

• www.getmte.com
• Instagram
• YouTube

Timecodes

• 00:00 – Jeff on why hard things create opportunity
• 02:06 – Chase welcomes Jeff to the show in Seattle
• 02:21 – Why this episode is different from the usual digital-first entrepreneurship conversation
• 05:21 – Jeff begins the story of becoming employee one at a shipping company
• 07:35 – "From now on, the answer is yes"
• 09:21 – Selling the company in 2019 and wanting to build a product
• 10:31 – Jeff starts getting the itch to build something new
• 15:40 – Why building a physical product is not a get-rich-quick scheme
• 17:57 – Jeff explains MTE: "an energy that loves you back"
• 22:35 – Starting in a category where you do not have all the experience
• 23:59 – Curiosity, thrill, and solving problems as entrepreneurship
• 28:01 – Fatherhood and being "born to be a dad"
• 31:12 – Why Jeff is "so all in now" with his family
• 33:16 – Time, family, business, and "millions and millions of dots"
• 36:18 – Why you have to love the process
• 38:15 – Attitude, winning, and sports psychology
• 39:23 – Jeff on still competing in long jump
• 42:00 – Why Jeff loves competition
• 46:33 – Leadership, authenticity, and leading from the front
• 50:45 – Zooming out and finding your North Star
• 51:47 – Why nobody does it alone
• 52:05 – Building teams with role players, not only all-stars
• 58:37 – "When people show you who they are, believe them"
• 01:03:14 – MTE cans, flavor work, and mango pineapple
• 01:05:08 – The Reggie Watts collaboration
• 01:09:20 – Why the harder path can be better
• 01:12:15 – Retail as the next frontier
• 01:17:03 – Jeff's three-pillar vision for MTE
• 01:17:45 – Ingredients, paraxanthine, prebiotics, and clean energy

Questions to Ask Yourself

If you want to turn this episode into action, take a few minutes with these questions:

• Where am I making my business or creative life look like someone else's version of success?
• What is the "non sexy" opportunity I might be overlooking because it does not look cool online?
• Where could "the answer is yes" help me learn faster?
• What hard thing am I avoiding that might actually be the opportunity?
• What problem do I not know how to solve yet, and who could help me triangulate an answer?
• Where am I too focused on the outcome and missing the process?
• What part of my life is made up of "millions and millions of dots" that I need to appreciate now?
• Am I leading from the front, or only telling people what I value?
• Where am I expecting everyone to be an all-star instead of building a real team?
• What would it look like to zoom out and find the North Star again?

A Simple Practice for Builders

Here's something practical you can do this week.

Pick one hard thing in your work or life that you have been treating as a sign to stop. It might be a distribution problem, a hiring problem, a creative problem, a sales problem, a health problem, or a relationship problem.

Then sit with Jeff's line:

"Oh yeah, this is hard. And I'm excited about it."

Do not use that line to pretend the hard thing is easy. Use it to reframe what the hard thing might be showing you. It may be pointing to the part where other people quit. It may be pointing to the skill you need to build next. It may be pointing to the person you need to ask, the rep you need to take, or the process you need to fall in love with again.

The work is not always to find an easier road.

Sometimes the work is to become the kind of person who can walk the hard one with more purpose.

Final Thought

This episode is a reminder that business is not only about scale, speed, funding, or hype. It is also about curiosity, grit, family, physical products, role players, clean energy, long jumps, retail shelves, hard conversations, and the willingness to keep learning when you do not already know the answer.

Jeff's story is not about avoiding the grind. It is about choosing the right grind.

It is about building something thoughtfully, leading from the front, and staying close enough to the process that the outcome has room to take care of itself.

Until next time: do what nobody else is willing to do, and love the process enough to keep going.